LEGAL PLURALISM AND SHARIA-CUSTOMARY CONTESTATION – TOBA BATAK CUSTOMS IN THE PRACTICE OF MINORITY MUSLIM MARRIAGE IN PAHAE JAE, NORTH TAPANULI

Abstract

Marriage ceremonies among minority Muslim communities are a typical arena of negotiation between Islamic law (Sharia) and the dominant local customary norms. Integrating legal pluralism, reasoning of al-ʿurf and maqāṣid, and Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt as an analytical framework, this study examines the contestation between Sharia and Toba Batak customs in the marriage practices of minority Muslim communities in Setia Village, Pahae Jae District, North Tapanuli Regency an area better known as the capital of the district, Tarutung. Muslims are a small minority of the surrounding population (officially about 4.9% of the total population of North Tapanuli Regency; Directorate General of Dukcapil of the Ministry of Home Affairs, 2024) so that it is immersed in the strong dominance of non-Muslim Toba Batak customs. The objectives of this study are: (1) to describe the adaptation strategies of minority Muslim communities in the face of Sharia-customary contestation; (2) to evaluate the adequacy of classical Islamic legal concepts in explaining these practices; and (3) to articulate their implications for  Indonesian Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt. This qualitative ethnographic study involved religious leaders, traditional elders, and married couples in Setia Village, through participant observation and in-depth interviews for approximately three months (July–September 2025). The data analysis followed the Miles, Huberman, and Saldāña (2019) model. The findings reveal three main patterns: (1) a systematic practice of what in this study is called “double compartmentalization”, in which the sacred realm of Sharia is maintained in the private domain while the public customary realm serves as the dominant arena of social legitimacy; (2) the obligation of synmoth, empirically, goes beyond the condition of free will of the classical fiqh concept ʿurf ṣaḥīḥ. The analytical reading proposed by this study to be reconsidered through ḍarūrah sūriyyah (social emergency) or maslahah mursalah at the ḍarūriyyāt level; and (3) these practices are associated with a resilient pluralistic religious identity, the Batak Muslim na maradat, in which adherence to customs serves as a protective framework for Islamic practices, not a threat to them. As a temporary analytical proposition of a single location that requires cross-site validation, this study contributes to the discourse of Fiqh al-Aqalliyyāt and legal pluralism in Indonesia, by showing that the direction of acculturation appears to be shaped no less by demographic and social power configurations than by normative textual arguments.